All the president’s threats
“For decades, the GOP cast itself as the champion of the FBI, CIA, Pentagon and other national security institutions. But over the past three years, Republicans have repeatedly turned on those agencies when necessary to protect Trump’s presidency.” https://t.co/77m0FO7bo6— Mark S. Zaid (@MarkSZaidEsq) December 25, 2019
This is how dictatorships happen. Having to assign bodyguards to protect a whistleblower who revealed to the congress that the president was using taxpayer money to bribe a foreign leader to smear his domestic political opponents is more than a little disturbing. That the danger escalates when the president himself makes public threats is downright terrifying. It’s banana republic time.
And you just don’t know which way the national security apparatus will go when push comes to shove, do you? After all, Attorney General Bill Barr and his henchman John Durham are investigating former CIA Director John Brennan, chiefly because he’s been a strong critic of the president since he left the government. The message couldn’t be clearer.
It’s pretty clear that most people who could step up are afraid of something. 300 former national security officials signed a letter in support of the whistleblower, but the real insiders like Mattis, McMaster, Tillerson, Bolton, Coates etc, have largely been silent. Maybe they are just political opportunists but it seems odd that none of them have been willing to step up publicly and say what they know considering the stakes. I would not be surprised if they have been cowed by the fact that the Trump followers are clearly violent toward anyone who is critical of their Dear Leader.
It is not about ideology or philosophy or religion. It’s about him. Il est l’État.
This is how authoritarian dictatorships are born. If he wins re-election do you think they won’t go all the way?
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